Here is another form of rest house in the Rookwood Necropolis. I showed you two, simpler, variations last week. This is officially called the 'Ornamental Rest House' which was built in 1901 in the Old Anglican Section. Being Australians, we don't truck with plebian names like 'Ornamental Rest House' and this eventually earned the moniker, 'Elephant House' because it reminded someone of the elephant house in Taronga Zoo. Duh!
It is undergoing restoration, and is the centrepiece for an evolving ceremony of community inclusion called '
Living with our Dead', which held a Dusk Ceremony in the Elephant House this weekend just past.
Living with our Dead is a project that fosters individual and community artistic expression, placing death as a significant part of life. The projects encourage personal and idiosyncratic expressions of how we live with our dead, and through this, to understand what living with our dead may offer us as individuals and communities.
Welcome to the 22nd week of
Taphophile Tragics.
Your contribution is most welcome. Please ensure that you include some details of the cemetery in which you took your photographs, and link directly to your post, rather than simply to your blog in general. This week, Mr Linky opens at
10pm Monday, Sydney time (GMT+10), and closes at 10pm on the Friday. When you can, please visit the other contributing bloggers to show your appreciation of their endeavours. Due to time zone variations and overcrowded schedules, some contributions are made later than Tuesday/Wednesday. As per usual, we are working with the Linky with thumbnails, and displaying the oldest entry first, with no randomising.
18 comments:
Rest houses in cemeteries. I don't know if we have them here, but I have to find out. This one is fantastic and I also like the gazebo look of the previous one.
The light inside is so nice.
I might have missed a previous post's explanation, so I have to ask, what is this "evolving ceremony of community inclusion called 'Living with our Dead'"?
I linked today to my Psalm post because there is an interesting note at the end about "non-burial."
Oops, Dina, sorry. You did not miss anything, I simply forgot to explain it adequately. I have added a link and some words of explanation from that link.
I think the programme is a means of raising the profile of the cemetery. A good means, in my opinion. I love the history of the place and am keen to foster increased community 'use' of the area. It is the size of a normal suburb!
Interesting little building. Love the warm light inside.
Julie, thanks! The video at your link is fascinating.
Amazing colour tone in this structure! In some ways it reminds me of Indian sacred buildings! Not sure why! I guess I am thinking of posts by Rajesh. Intriguing style with those chequered patterns!
That's absolutely beautiful, I prefer it to last week's.
One of the fascinating things about blogging is the exposure to completely different points of view. I don't see Indian, like Gemma did; I see American "country" style, what with the red and the checkers. LOL! It's a unique looking rest house, that's for sure.
I don't mean to be flip when I say this: isn't death already a significant part of life? Perhaps more open discussion on the subject (as with sex) will help make it feel more natural and less of a taboo or angst-inducing topic.
I don't regard your comment as 'flip' in the least, Francisca.
Is is how death is 'regarded' that is the issue. Obviously, yes, it IS a significant part of life. But many people find it confronting and never get to embrace it before it embraces them.
One of the solaces of being a taphophile is the proximity to, not death, but to the dead. Even cemeteries keep death at bay.
Elephant house or not, it's stunningly beautiful. I with we had such projects at our cememteries. Sadly attitudes differ over here and most apart from the most famous cememteries and graves are left to rot.
Herding Cats
It is a little like the Elephant House. The interior shot is lovely.
As a Christian I always think of my loved ones as living not dead ... and I fully expect to meet them again one day.
Interesting structure, Julie, but I find the idea behind the ceremony around the familiarisation of our community with death quite fascinating and very useful. See my entry "On death" in my "other" blog:
http://nicholasjv.blogspot.com.au/2009/12/on-death.html
im early today!
but again in a rush. at the airport and right before boarding...
again some pics on flickr, like last week, i had captions for the flickr photos. but flickr changed and me not, so every time i lost all my text... :( just pics...
i very much enjoy you always go by everything i post!!
i will do so later today, or this week.. :)
Hi Julie. Thank you so much for our comments. Tuesdays are becomin g by far my most favourite day as, I cannot wait to see everyone's posts.
Sadly most of the monuments in All Saints Cememtery lie forgotten and at the mercy of vandals and our local authority, who have the annoying habit of laying monuments done due to health and safety, all well and good, except when they lie them information side down.
It is such a shame because so many important people from our town's history lay buried there.
Wow, that has taken me the better part of the afternoon to get around all your contributions this week. But what a time I have had of it. I have learn so much, from your postings from near and far.
Many thanks to you all.
Re your question on my post, Julie, it could have been my story, had I only been alert enough! The writing on the right marker is classical Mongolian script aka Uyghurjin Mongol bichig, while the name on the left stone has the Mongolian Cyrillic introduced in 1946.
Ahha ... I will go back and have another look. Taa ...
Julie, regarding your question about the remains they, are cremated after research possibilities are exhausted. My great aunt is donating her body and the remains will be returned to the family.
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